Echoes Of The Past
(Part Four)
Previously …
"Ho..how can I trust you?"
Alia laughed, this time mirthlessly sad, a deep sense of misery and loneliness coating the sound as it seemed to echo around them.
The soundless blood river continuing to flow rapidly beside them.
"I can't answer that Hiccup. Trust isn't a thing to be given, it is earnt."
Alia hung her head.
"…in any land."
Hiccup didn't know what to do or say. There was something in her tone that begged him to believe her, almost against his will, but then like a siren call he felt something deeper make that illusion be exposed for what it was. An illusion.
Could he trust her or was that too just a trick? ….
Like the devils of hell trapped in the shadows, screaming such vile curses, there came such haunting echoes that filtered throughout the land. After all the main inhabitants of Hell's Haven; were demons, beasts, the condemned….and a few imprisoned unfortunates. Those to make the noise and those to shiver at hearing them.
This is the sound that Hiccup heard. As he stood up and stared at a the 'sky'. His head titled so far back at the nothing-ness that his neck hurt. What was he to fear more…the chilling sounds or the vampire that stood before him now? The stuff of nightmares and villainous deeds….or were they a lot like dragons?…Simply misunderstood, just as capable of being good or evil as any other creature? Any other Viking?
His good nature would suggest 'yes' but self-preservation screamed for him to run. With a resolute determination he didn't truly feel Hiccup stood right where he was, holding his ground. Confidant that if she wished to kill him…to.. eat… him…
She would have done so already.
He was willing to risk his life on that logic. Especially since he didn't really understand where he was, and he had to find Astrid….Alia may very well be his only chance of getting back to Berk alive.
The irony.
"What can we do?" Hiccup asked of Alia, trying to dampen his fear. They had to work together. What other choice did he have?…Other than to surrender to those voices….the voices from nowhere, that seemed to lure one to their deaths with but the echoes of their words. No! He couldn't give into those voices….the mere thought made him shiver.
"Well…." Alia sighed, drawing out the words.
"I have to be honest with you Hiccup. I haven't a clue how to get you out of Hell's Heaven."
Hiccup gasped, horrified to think that they'd be stuck in the nowhere land forever!
"…and Astrid?" He asked his voice trembling with concern and fear.
What had he dragged them into? How had he even manage to do so?
Nothing made sense in this world. Nothing.
"Hicc…up." Alia warned, the sound of his name drawn out like Astrid often did when she knew he was doing something he likely shouldn't be.
"What?" Truly perplexed he looked up at the stunning beauty, confessed.
"Your aura is changing, stop. Thinking. About. Astrid." She sternly commanded.
Hiccup blinked.
"How," Then he stopped. "Never mind." What difference did it make how she managed to know he was been worrying about Astrid. Of course he was worrying about Astrid! He loved her, needed her, and could not stand the thought of her in danger.
"HICCUP!" Alia yelled sharply at him.
"Stop it!"
Hiccup stumbled backwards startled.
"What?"
Alia sighed. Placing a hand to her forehead and then tracing it through her thick hair and tugging at the ends of it.
"Stop thinking about her, dammit if you can't stop I'll have to take drastic actions. Trust me Hiccup if you let your fear overtake you it will become real."
Hiccup's eyes widened at her threat but her other words sunk deep into his trouble mind and began to play with that fear like ghostly hands had reached into his brain and began playing with his mind like a sponge. Twisting and squishing, muddling and confessing. Hiccup suddenly clutched at his head with both hands. A terrible headache over taking him.
What was this place!
A place were the threats came unseen. A place where the darker your heart the greater you ruled. If you were vulnerable and love filled your heart it could become your curse. Your down fall instead of your strength.
"Hiccup! Hiccup!" Alia called but it was like it was from a distance as it echoed through his seemingly hollow head.
He couldn't contain the effects of this world and like Alia had warned him it began to control him.
Now dear reader, times like these one thing comes into play, when a heart is weak it succumbs….had our dear hero been weak that would have been the end of Hiccup. His soul his mind and his heart were being sucked from his very body, to others it would have seemed like Bucket did when a storm was coming…but this was far greater than a mere nasty headache.
This was a fight for Hiccup's sanity, his soul and his very life.
Within a heartbeat his thoughts had betrayed him and fear had been the beacon, the bridge, the link for the evils of this world to consume his very spirit.
For more than the breath in your body is in danger in Hell's Haven. Your heart, you mind and your very soul are like physical objects to be taken, broken, changed and destroyed.
"Oh, Hiccup!" Alia growled. Watching is terror as Hiccup clutched at his head, his wordless cried joining in with the invisible demons attacking him.
Alia was unsure what to do. A fight for one's soul is a fight only that person could battle against.
Now reader; when a heart is strong, or empowered by love it is stronger than a loveless heart. It can protest the invasion, the threat posed upon the entire being. It can rage against the attempts to turn that strength against it. To be the strength instead of becoming the down fall…but its isn't an easily won battle.
When these invisible forces attempted to take Hiccup's very heart it found it fortified. It found within it is beating, blood filled walls what made our hero great.
Our hero so empowered against evil.
It. found. love.
Alas, within this strength that could save Hiccup, the demons attacking him also found what it would take to break him.
Astrid.
"NO!" Hiccup cried out as his mind comprehended this magical villain within him and what they had just discovered. When they had reached for his heart, the very last thing they could steal, and control they had been burnt. Brunt by the fire of love that glowed fiercely within.
Around his very heart glowed an aura of its own and it was golden. Golden and shimmering with blue haze. The blue of Astrid's shining eyes. His heart's true love. The one thing to have always made him stronger. To inspire, encourage, support and save.
Now as the greedy slimy hands of these invading demons reached for his heart, Astrid did what we know she would have done if she had actually been there with him.
She saved him.
At the cost of her own life.
When the connected force of Astrid's love within Hiccup's heart repelled the attacking demons, they had discovered the only way to possess this mortal's heart.
"Hiccup!" Alia cried out the sound so strong and urgent it vibrated over the land right before she slapped Hiccup Haddock across his all too gorgeous face.
The impact of which had the effect of a plasma blast.
Hiccup jerked from his possessed state and collapsed to his knees. Weeping for all he was worth. As you might very well have done so yourself, my dear reader, if you had just been internally attacked by all the demons in hell.
"Astrid." Hiccup cried her name, having seem the evil destined for her in the visions the strange beings had forced him to witness. Like a vision, a hideous nightmare one couldn't escape.
Hiccup had seen Astrid's death.
"Astrid. I'm sorry!" Covering his face with his hands he felt the vision overwhelm him like it had already happened. A fierce and dark cloud fell over him like a strangling black blanket. Wrapping around his throat and choking him to death.
In that moment he wanted nothing more than to die too.
His head screamed in agony, his heart actually began to bleed.
"Hiccup! Hiccup! Listen to me!" Alia tried to reach him, she fell to her knees too and shook his shoulders.
"Hiccup its isn't real!" Still he was trapped within the lingering forces of the demons' control. They'd long since gone seeking out that with which he cherished most and he could do nothing to stop them.
"AUGH! Hiccup you lovesick fool!" Alia screamed. Then she grabbed him by the arms dragging them both to their feet and kissed him.
Alia had a fleeting moment of delight at the exquisite taste of Hiccup's lips as she pressed hers to his.
That Astrid Hofferson was one lucky woman!
Even feeling nothing romantic for the man he tasted like heaven! Sweet, innocent but rouged and sexy. A heady combination that had Alia thinking for a moment that she was actually in love with him.
She sighed against his lips and wished it was true.
Had he really loved her, and she loved him, then they would not be standing in the cursed hills of this monstrous and vile land.
They would be free.
Lamenting that the kiss had to end Alia drew back and looked into the very clear but startled green eyes of the man she greatly admired if for nothing else but his devotion and depth of love he had for his girl.
So few men in her world or any other ever held such passion for anything but themselves. To be so in love was something Alia desperately wished she could get drunk on. Become its addict and never resurface. Love was what she craved fiercer and more painfully than blood.
Love was the one thing she was forever denied.
Hiccup continued to stare at her completely dumbfounded. She knew to him it would look like she had just kissed him for no reason. Had inadvertently been consumed with a desire to throw herself at him. Alia admitted to herself that there was an inkling within that kind of did.
What?! She was a woman after all and Hiccup had just that perfect blend of fierce, protective, violent, strong …and at the same time soft, gentle and sweet.
Arrogant men were good enough, some women adored them for their arrogance. Others were just not interested in a man who could do nothing but be domineering and threatening and never show a kinder side. Alia was one of them.
Men like Hiccup Haddock were more alluring to women like her. She just wished they held any romantic affection for each other. It certainly would make both their lives better. They could escape Hell's Heaven. Alia inwardly sighed.
Alas, it would break the poor heart of Astrid and leave her to take the lonely, guttered senseless existence that Alia faced every day. A life without love is a life not worth living….
Too bad Alia was already dead.
"Um…" Hiccup looked speechless and also looked as if he'd just woken from a dream. Alia knew he didn't remember what just happened….aside from the kiss.
His last thought would have been her telling him to not to think of Astrid. Alia laughed a little. Boy! How that must play well with his 'next' thought of her kissing him!
Too bad she couldn't erase their chase kiss from his mind like the demons had erased their attack upon him…. then again maybe as a vampire she could….
Alia thought about it but quickly dismissed the idea. If she did erase their kiss from his mind she couldn't be certain it wouldn't throw him right back into the thoughts that had evoked the demon's attack. He'd start worrying about Astrid and they'd all get stuck in one of those time circles again. Condemned to repeat the events over and over….not that she wouldn't mind reliving that kiss…
Alia hid a smile behind her hand trying to saviour the already fleeting feeling of his lips upon hers. It had really been sweet, her first physical contact with another person in far too many years….it hadn't awoken a love for him but it had sharpened her longing for her own true love. A man she dreamt of often but never knew. She'd never seen his face in these tormenting dreams, she'd barely been able to make out his personality, but she had seen his eyes. His mesmerising, haunting, tormented bright eyes. They'd drawn her in to her dreams with a lasting promise of love and happiness. Too many times she had tried to reach out for him but the vision was like a cloud softly drifting away upon the breeze. Forever out of her reach.
Alia shook her head and looked back at Hiccup. So long as he was confused and wondering about that kiss he wasn't thinking about Astrid. So then he wasn't perpetuating the dreadful events to come….yes his vision had been but a tease but if they didn't get them out of here soon there would grow a seedling in time that would grow into a tree that then would splinter its sharp fragments imbedding themselves throughout their lives. No matter where they went parallel portions of themselves would forever haunt them. In their dreams in their thoughts in their senses of déjà vu. It would all be linked and it would be like living thousands of lives in one. It would drive them both to madness and destroy their lives.
She had to get them home. Forget her own fear, her own damnation. Nothing could save her but love. Not borrowed love, not stolen love, certainly not false love, nothing but true love.
Her own, completely hers and she could never have that with Hiccup Haddock. Not even in a parallel world. Love wasn't separated by worlds it simply confused its sense of direction. No matter what time, world or life, she could never belong to Hiccup Haddock. That role was Astrid's, and would always be Astrid's.
Hiccup stood a few feet from her and shifted back and forth rubbing at the back of his neck and then fiddling with his belt contraptions. The Inferno sword and map and he then raised a hand to the dagger holder on his arm and Alia saw the instant his memory returned. The moment when the faint demon fog cleared and his train of thought come back. Right back to the one thing that could once again derail it.
"Astrid." He gasped in a whisper. He raised a hand to a locket around his neck, tucked into his shirt. Alia knew it had to be from Astrid too.
Here we go again. She groaned.
"Hiccup DON'T!" Without thinking she slapped him once more, this time with such force as to render him unconscious.
Standing over his body that had dropped to her feet in an abrupt heap Alia sighed.
Unconscious wouldn't save him for long. Dreams where just another way this would plagued you. It was why she was never sure the man she dreamt of was even real, or wore still! If he would ever find her.
She knelt down by Hiccup and sighed once again.
"I'm sorry Hiccup. We've really got to find your girl, and get you two out of here before it's too late….trouble with that is….only you can find her…."
Alia laughed without humour. "…and you. are. unconscious."
Gathering the young man up effortlessly in her vampire arms she held him close to her. His back supported by her left arm and her right tucked under his knees.
This day just keeps getting better and better. She thought with distain and admitted she was tremendously at a loss for what to do.
Knocking him out had been a bit much but there had only been one other alternative and that likely wouldn't have worked a second time. Not that it would have been a chore! Alia sniggered slightly to herself.
How did you find a woman you'd never meet in a land that changed with the thoughts of the one she loved? Who was now out cold….?
Alia sighed.
Welcome to Hell's Haven the epitome of illogic! In time, relativity and emotions.
Think of a world were nothing was set and the land was controlled by the most sick and evil creatures of all time…you'd have the definition of Hell's Heaven.
END
Eliana Robinson
9/7/18
CREATION DATE – 31/10/17
PUBLISH DATE – 9/7/18
Echoes Of The Past Disclaimer
ECHOES OF THE PAST - is a Fanfiction of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON I do not own the characters or original plotline, with the exemption of anything in relation to new characters, the Kingdom of Alexyarna and Hell's Haven which are original creations of my own from my own original works. The character of Alia is of my own creation with the name being created by a contest winner VenomousFantum, as their winning prize. The character herself is of my own invention.
PLOTLINE:
Awake in the new land with Hiccup and see the difference in all ….where can this Viking chief be?
Is it heaven or hell….
…. or someplace worse than either above or below.
Enjoy the fourth instalment of the mysterious Special "Echoes Of The Past"
Dedicated to VenomousFantum for winning the Reader's contest 2017
Thank you for your choice in the name of this fiery heroine. I hope you enjoy this story and that it's all you hoped for, regards. Ms Robinson.
This story is NOTfor official publication or profit.
ECHOES OF THE PAST is a short tale in an unofficially link series between all my HTTYD fanfics and is purely meant as entertainment.
CREATION DATE – 31/10/17
PUBLISH DATE – 9/7/18
Part of the "Dragon Adventures" Series By Eliana Robinson
Actually a Crossover between HTYYD and my own Original novel series, "The Ring Dynasty" – a fantasy collection of novels based in the magical kingdom of Alexyarna.